They played great string music

Lee’s Paul Garnica (3) puts up a shot over Madison’s Topher Campbell (23) at Littleton Gym in San Antonio on Jan. 8, 2009. Garnica would go on to break the city scoring record during the 4th quarter of the game.

I watched in awe as a slender Hispanic youngster continued to loft projectiles from every location in the forecourt and the flying sphere found the opening with the accuracy of a missile at the Alamogordo firing range.

Paul Garnica, the eagle-eyed basketball star from Robert E. Lee High School became the city’s leading scorer when he broke Devin Brown’s record in a 58-57 squeaker over the Madison Mavericks.

It was a boisterous crowd on the Lee side of Littleton Gym as hundreds of Volunteer fans anticipated that Garnica would shatter the mark on a frigid Friday night when the district leading Vols of Tommy Hines were playing John Valenzuela’s Mavs who were tied for the district lead with the Vols.

Garnica needed19 points to set a new scoring record and in the third quarter, one of his amazing shots swished the cords and the fan eruption rattled the rafters and Paul had his hardwood milestone. Brown had slammed the nets for 2,763 points in his great career at Southwest High and Garnica’s three pointer propelled him to a pedestal of local hardwood history.

With the season at the halfway juncture, no doubt the Lee bombardier will find a lot more targets for his long range rockets and the three thousand point-plateau is close at hand.

Since the record was broken at Littleton Gym, it seemed appropriate on a floor named in honor of the late, legendary coach, Jimmy Littleton, whose Lee team won the state basketball championship in 1967. In those days, a high scorer might collect 15-20 points a game, but nothing like the 30-point average that Garnica has compiled. The ’67 team was led by a youth who flirted with the 7-foot tall mark, Steve Niles, who went on to Texas A&M. But the 6 foot Garnica plays like he is a foot taller.

As NEISD Athletic Director Jerry Comalander and I watched the Volunteers against the MacArthur Brahmas two nights earlier, he said, “I love to watch these kids play … they really get with it.” They beat the Brahmas in the final seconds much like they defeated the Mavericks.

The current Volunteers remind me of the 1995 East Central Hornets, when they won the state championship in 1995. Led by Stanley Bonewitz, son of the highly successful coach, Stan Sr., the Hornets were the most exciting high school team I ever saw.

David Flores, Moe Aguilar, Eddie Morris and I broadcast the Hornets victory over Dallas Carter in the March Madness of ’95 at the Super Drum in Austin (The Frank Erwin Center). That night, the Hornets stung the much taller, more athletic and favored Dallas quintet 101-80 in a game that North Texas sportswriters said East Central didn’t have a chance.

The full-court, zone-trap press created more chaos for Carter than a Tiger Woods PR firm.

Tallest starter for East Central was 6 feet 4, while the average starter for the Dallas team was almost 6 feet 7. I have never seen a better ball-hawking, pass-stealing high school team than the ’95 Hornets.

Young Bonewitz had 34 points that night as his left-handed shot would tickle the twine as he continued to hit from long range.

I don’t know how talented this Lee team might be, it may not reach Austin, but it is an exciting group to watch as the kids who don’t have much height, and not a great deal of speed, provide a pesky, feisty, pressing defense that creates turnovers which result in points.

Express-News file photo

Shaquille O’Neal, playing for Cole High School in 1989.

Looking back into the tunnel of time, I can think of tremendous young basketeers who have soared to great hardwood heights: Fennis Dembo, the Fox Tech phenom who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated; Keith Edmundson of MacArthur who went on to Purdue; George Gervin Jr. at Mac; Gary Heyland for Churchill when the Chargers won the state title in 1984; Robert Bell who led Fox Tech to a state title; Gilbert Salinas of Burbank; Tony Terrell when he played at East Central; and the biggest of all San Antonio hardwood stars, Shaquille O’Neal, the mega-millionaire who led Cole High School to a 3A state championship before he traveled on to LSU and the NBA.

No doubt, some hardwood hero will come along in the future to score even more points than Paul Garnica, but for the 2009-10 school year, the young music maker for Robert E. Lee will continue to be the maestro of the maples, continuing to play his string music with more harmony than an oboe section for the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra.